PreKiss
by alwaysslowburning
Summary: After the play, things get more than a little heated at the Gaang's dinner table. Zutara. First part of a three part series: Pre-Kiss, The Kiss, Post-Kiss


**Katara**

Katara looks up from her dinner plate and finds Zuko's golden eyes on her - and he doesn't look away. Her face flushes but she refuses to be the one to break eye contact. _It's that stupid play, I know it_, Katara thinks. Ever since the play, everyone has been acting bizarre. Toph is hulking around more than usual, Sokka is telling even more bad jokes, much to Suki's annoyance, and Aang...

It didn't seem like he was ever going to give up.

He insisted that they sit beside each other that evening, and his thigh kept coming nearer to brush hers beneath the table. Katara gripped her fork more tightly as she speared her overcooked ostrich-goose and pulled her leg away.

Why doesn't he understand?

She thought she made it clear that she was confused. She does love him, but not the way a lover loves their partner. Not the way Sokka loved Suki, or her father had loved her mother. Aang didn't seem capable of understanding this. To Aang, love was love. Katara glanced at him and his grey eyes flew to hers, his sweet face turning into a grin. Katara forced a smile and pretended to be really interested in her plate.

And then she feels a leg pressing into her other thigh.

Katara startles. There is no way Aang is reaching all the way around her. It's physically impossible... She considers the length of Zuko's legs and the narrow width of the table, and a shiver runs down her spine. Katara looks up and see Zuko's eyes on hers, more scorching than before, and she knows that without a doubt Zuko is flirting with her.

Katara isn't sure why this makes her entire body spark.

Why had Aang's thigh against hers been an annoyance, but Zuko's...

Before she can question it, Katara finds herself pressing back.

Zuko grips the edge of the table.

Around her, her friend's laugh, clinking their drinks and mocking the play. Toph throws food at Sokka, who ducks and launches a rock in her direction, which she promptly dissolves midair, getting grains in their food. Sokka groans and Suki kisses him and Toph blushes, mumbles, and looks away, and Aang launches into a story of Bumi in an attempt to distract her from the beginnings of a crush.

All Katara feels is Zuko's thigh against hers and his eyes burning into hers.

Her confusion fades. Suddenly she knows what she wants - and it isn't the sweet, bald monk beside her.

Katara bites her lip and looks away from Zuko's face. If she looks at him any longer she just might burst. Already she can feel the push and pull of a strange sort of heat inside of her lower torso.

Tentatively, Katara slides her left hand from the table and places it on Zuko's thigh. Avoiding his eyes, she squeezes gently.

There is a loud bang, and everyone's eyes fly to Zuko. He seems to have dropped his rock glass, courtesy of Toph, on the floor. He eyes the shattered pieces as if just as confused as the rest of them.

"Sorry," Zuko mumbles. Katara finds herself smiling.

Or at least she is, until a hand comes to her bare knee and begins drawing circles into the skin. She places her rock glass on the table and laces her hands across her lap. She inhales deeply and exhales. Finally she allows herself to look up at Zuko.

What she sees in his expression makes her feel like she's falling into a deep, deep haze.

**Zuko**

Ever since that damn play Zuko hasn't been able to get Katara out of his mind. The light flush on her face when the actors portraying them embraced gave him no other choice but to admit to her beauty. The entire time he prepared dinner he kept envisioning her blushing, only each time he imagined it the image became less and less sweet and more, well, heated. He imagined her blushing while he held her hand. He imagined her blushing while he kissed her, gently, on the cheek. He imagined her blushing while he kissed slowly up her neck, her ear, her jawline, before finally, finally settling on her lips. He imagined her blushing as his lips moved downward, dotting her collarbone with kisses and continuing their path down her deep brown skin before settling on her cleavage.

He didn't realize the ostrich-goose had gone up in flames until Sokka started screaming.

He snapped the flame from the air, but was unable to remove the heat from his thoughts.

He made a point of suggesting that Toph earthbend a narrower table than usual.

"It'll make it easier to socialize," he lied, and Toph _tsk_ed at him.

"I'm sure it will, Sparky. Make sure you sit beside Sugar Queen, eh?" Toph chuckled and easily dodged the weak attempts at fireballs that he shot in her direction. Why does Toph always see the things no one else does?

It was Toph who told him that Aang told Katara that he wanted them to be together. Zuko had been ready to go sob in a cave somewhere until she also told him that Katara said she was confused.

"You better hurry up and un-confuse her, Sparky, or Twinkletoes is gonna steal your girl," Toph said.

"I... it's not like I want her to be my girl," Zuko said, and Toph punched him. Zuko winced.

"You do. Quit being a baby about it and make it happen. I'll distract Twinkletoes." Toph promised.

Sure enough, she kept her promise. Pretending (or was she?) to be upset with Suki's adoration of Sokka, Toph was able to coax Aang into trying to distract _her_. That left Zuko with only one problem - he was a wimp.

He could do nothing more than stare helplessly at Katara. He had never felt so desperate, more _pathetic_ in his life, he thought angrily. He could feel the fire beginning to rise in his system. Zuko forced himself to take a cleansing breath, not wanting to terrify the poor girl.

Or rather, woman, Zuko thought, all of his earlier imaginings coming back full fledged. Without even realizing it he found himself pressing his thigh against hers, patience be damned. He'd never been patient, something Uncle had always scolded him for, but the lack of patience paid off when Katara's eyes flew to his, and something in them appeared...

lustful?

Zuko felt like his entire body was going to catch fire if he wasn't careful. He had never in his life imagined Katara would look at him with such desperation in her eyes. She wanted him, he realized suddenly, and the agony was almost too much. He wasn't sure if he wanted to blow something up or pin her up against a wall and kiss her until his lips were bruised and his mouth went numb. He felt like he was already so close to losing it when her hand came down on his thigh. And then she squeezed.

And Zuko heard a loud smash and realized he'd thrown the clay cup to the ground with such force that it'd shattered.

He ignored the stares on him and rose to the challenge. If she was going to make him feel this, this horrible torture, than she was going to have to feel the same way. After glancing over to see Aang was still engaged with Toph, talking about something called fruit pie throwing, Zuko scooted forward on his seat and reached out his own hand. Lightly, very lightly, he began to draw circles into Katara's knee. He'd been ready to torture her, but he hadn't realized that in her seated position the fabric of her skirt would rise upward, forcing him to touch her bare skin.

He'd expected her skin to be cool, some type of water tribe ability.

He hadn't expected it to be burning hot, like his.


End file.
